Nepal's economy which is largely dependent on foreign employment is likely to be directly affected by the global recession, the National News Agency RSS reported on Sunday.
According to the RSS, some people involved in the foreign employment sector and those who are doing jobs abroad are going to be the first casualty of global financial meltdown in Nepal.
More so, after Malaysia sent back 84 laborers some two weeks ago. However, Nepali embassy in Malaysia said no Nepali except those working in textile and electronics sectors will lose job in Malaysia due to the financial crisis.
A country like Nepal whose economy is largely dependent on foreign jobs cannot remain unaffected by the global crisis, said economist Gambhir Bahadur Hada.
According to International Labor Organization, 50 million people will lose jobs globally this year and additional 18 million will lose the jobs next year.
No official data have been made public in Nepal on how many people will lose the jobs and what sectors will be affected by the financial crisis.
Nepal exports its labor mainly to Gulf countries including the United Arab Emirates and Qatar and Malaysia. Of late, Japan has also expressed interest in hiring Nepali workers. A finance ministry official said Minister Baburam Bhattarai's Japan visit will give impetus to hiring of Nepali workers by Japanese firms.
The government of Nepal has issued permission to send workers to 107 countries across the globe. Joint-secretary at Foreign Employment Department Laxmi Narayan Uprety said the foreign job sector should be reformed in line with the changing time to save the country's economy.
The department said more than 1.3 million people have gone abroad for jobs through registered manpower companies alone by mid- January.
Nepal Rastra Bank, the central bank of the country, said Nepal received 1.42 billion Nepali rupees (some 18.2 million U.S. dollars) remittance from countries other than India during the last five months. If timely move was not taken by the government to persuade multi-national companies to continue hiring Nepali workers, the country's remittance-dependent economy will be badly affected.